Scrap French NOW! Boris urged to turbocharge Global Britain and teach Japanese in schools
Brexit: Japan 'values quality' says NFU's Tom Bradshaw
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Daniel Kawczynski was speaking at a time when International Trade secretary Liz Truss is busy sewing up trade deals with scores of countries around the world. Among the ones agreed so far is the UK–Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) which she signed, along with Japan’s Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu, in October.
And Mr Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, said Mr Johnson could significantly strengthen ties between the two countries with a radical shift in education policy.
He told Express.co.uk: “I’d like to say, perhaps ditch the French.
“At the moment they’re encouraged to do French, Spanish, or German.
“I think that one of those top three ought to be Japanese rather than just mainly European languages.
“So I’m going to write to the Prime Minister about this and I feel very strongly about it.”
Mr Kawczynski, 49, who was born in Poland and lived there until the age of seven, explained: “As somebody who is now has spent the last three years re-learning Polish, I am amazed at how much better you understand people when you speak their language.
“We understand the Americans (just about); we understand the Australians; now we need to understand the fourth partner in Japanese.
“Can you imagine how appreciative the Japanese would be in any set of circumstances where the English interlocutor is speaking Japanese?
“When it comes to Global Britain, we are teaching our kids the three languages that represent a tiny shrinking continent, rather than trying to make sure our children understand some of the languages of some of these great powers.
“Japan is one of the G7 nations, we’re going to be in the same trading pact as them, and they’re going to be an increasingly important defence partner for us.
“If you think about the trajectory of Anglo-Japanese relations over the last 50 years, they have gone from strength to strength.
“And we’ve got a very good political trading relationship, growing partnership with two island nations on opposite ends of the world but those relations are becoming very strong definitely.
“Keep the Spanish and the German – maybe not the French.”
English remains an important language within the European Union, a fact which was illustrated during an awkward exchange during a virtual session of the European Parliament yesterday, when Karima Delli, chairwoman of the Parliament’s transport committee, urged fellow French MEP Julie Lechanteux to speak English, explaining: “We don’t have a translator.”
Mrs Lechanteux replied: “No, I’m French, and I speak for the French. I am sorry, but I will continue in French.”
When reminded that she was a member of the European Parliament, Mrs Lechanteux added: “Absolutely, I am a member of this parliament, but I’m French, so I am defending the French and I will speak French.
“Especially since we no longer have the UK here, so we no longer have anyone who speaks English. Thank you. I’ll take my two minutes now.”
Her assertion was incorrect, given Ireland, with its five million citizens, has English as its first language.
Nevertheless, it echoed a claim by former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in 2017 that English was “losing importance in the EU”.
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